


The Rest of the Story

by ithappenedonenight



Category: Primeval
Genre: Backstory, F/M, Getting Together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-05
Updated: 2018-04-05
Packaged: 2019-04-18 14:38:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14215335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ithappenedonenight/pseuds/ithappenedonenight
Summary: Jess asks Connor and Abby about the early days of their relationship, but not all stories are meant to be shared. Set after S04E02.





	The Rest of the Story

It turns out that if you have no rental history of your own (Connor) or if you happened to break lease on your last place because of time hopping saving the world reasons (Abby) finding a nice flat in London driving distance from work is easier said than done. 

“New tactic,” Connor said. They were lying on the bed in Jess’s spare room - their room now. Abby was flipping through a magazine, making disgusted noises about royal fashion choices and using Connor’s legs as a reading stand. 

“Oh yeah?” she said back, not looking up.

“If you take on all official flat searching duties, I’ll make you breakfast for a month,” he bargained. “AND dinner on weekends.” He had learned early on that she really did not like to cook. Doubly so after their year of enforced root cheffing. “Besides, you haven’t liked any of the places I’ve found so far.” In part because all had been chosen, not for their suitability, but more because they were the first to pop up on Google.

She took him up on the offer, but the while the breakfasts materialized the new flat did not. Possibly because staying at Jess’s was actually working out better than either of them had expected. Jess did have a tendency to constantly prattle on - often about Becker. And she didn’t quite understand the concept of private space. She joined Abby and Connor on their movie nights and blithely came into their room unannounced to vacuum. But it kept them from receding into each other. Forced them to remember how to talk and interact with people outside of their personal sphere. 

When it got too much, Abby would go out and find something to hit. There was a gym across the street frequented by guys twice her size that usually did the trick. 

Jess loved to ask questions, and it felt good for Connor to be able to talk. To be able to remember Stephen and Professor Cutter - not just the work that they did, but what they had been like as colleagues, and friends. Professor Cutter’s dry sense of humor and eternal optimism. How Stephen’s sixth sense for creature hunting seemed to expand to ferreting out personal secrets. 

“So wait,” Jess said, flipping the kettle on and rinsing out their cups. Connor had just finished explaining the embarrassing mess that had been his short-lived romance with Caroline, complete with choice commentary from Abby. 

“Were you two,” Jess asked, gesturing back and forth between him and Abby, “actually a couple before you went through Helen’s anomaly?” 

Connor exchanged a look with Abby. “It was a work in progress,” he said. “She had kissed me. But then she took it back.”

“About six months after he told me he loved me and then denied it,” Abby replied.

“Funny how getting lost 100 million years in the past sorts out a relationship,” said Jess.

“Yeah,” said Connor, smiling sideways at Abby. “Once she realized that I was the only man alive, she was all mine.”

That of course wasn’t the whole truth. They didn’t tell Jess about that first long night in the tree where they held hands in the dark - back when they still thought they would wake up, find Danny and be home by mid-morning.

Nor did they tell her about the following days of endless searching, hoping for some trace of Danny or even Helen, some clue of where they had gone. How Abby had gridded out the area where they’d last been seen and then paced the land while Connor, still semi-crippled from his fall, played lookout. 

It had been the end of the third day, running low on rations and with the temperature dropping, when Abby finally gave up. Connor watched, helpless, as her distant figure dropped her rucksack and went to war with a convenient tree. Expending her anger separate and apart, then carefully pulling herself back together so that the tears were dry by the time she returned. 

“We need to make camp,” she had said, once he was in earshot. She then busied herself picking up supplies for a firepit, refusing to meet his gaze. 

“Hey,” he said, catching at the edge of her jacket. Connor had never been good at telling Abby the important things. But this was different. He knew that for them to keep each other alive, it all had to be different. “We’ve got this, yeah?” he said softly, not really asking. “We’ll do this together. And we’ll make it home together.”

She tried to respond, but it came out as a sob. A short, gasping affair. He pulled her close and she buried her face against his chest and began to shake. Letting the tears escape into his jacket while he murmured words of comfort and of hope, trying in that moment to be enough for them both. Abby's breathing equalized and the sobs stopped, but she continued to hold him tight, dwelling in this small space where everything was familiar and safe. 

“Yeah, we’ve got this,” she said at last, then looked up and lifted her lips to his. They kissed and laughed and kissed some more, riding on a cocktail of emotions. All the fears that had been keeping them from straying beyond friendship no longer seemed to apply. Finally they broke apart and she leaned against his good side, the one without the possibly broken, definitely sprained ankle. Together they stood, staring out at this land before time. 

“Not weird?” he asked the only other person on the planet. 

“Not weird,” she replied, taking his hand. 

But they didn’t tell any of this to Jess. After all, it had happened a very, very long time ago.


End file.
